


The meaning of family

by CureIcy



Series: All is Within Their Gaze [4]
Category: Original Work, The Eye and its Children: What Lurks in the Dark
Genre: Cryptids, Family Lost and Found, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 05:08:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21238676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CureIcy/pseuds/CureIcy
Summary: She had nowhere else to go, no one to turn to. So she called upon the Eye.





	The meaning of family

If you’re ever in trouble, find an eye. On a dollar bill, or a logo, or graffiti. If you can’t find one, draw it yourself. That’s what she’d always been told, for reasons she never understood. Maybe she never would.

But if there ever was a time when she needed protection, it was now. She had no money, her phone was long gone...all she had left was a dying black sharpie that she’d found under a park bench. That, and the unforgiving brick wall she found herself backed up against.

And so, she drew. With frigid hands and a racing heart, she created eye after eye in childish, messy strokes, praying under her breath to something she did not understand. Begging for salvation, for a sign, for  _ something, _ for proof that all wasn’t lost, for her life to go on. Drawing eye after eye after eye, filling the space with a silent question.

Only her own ragged breath came in response. She fell to her knees, a sob rising in her throat.

“Please,” she whispered, her hand tracing a shaky line on the brick in front of her. Just a plain vertical line, nothing more. What was the point, even? Except…

...the line was red. Bright red. She raised the marker to her face and watched a drop of something like blood fall from the tip. It sizzled when it hit the ground, carving its mark deeper and deeper until it was gone from sight.

It seemed her prayer had been answered.

It was clear as day now; the eyes she’d drawn were not the work of her own hands, nor could they ever be. The crude drawings were given life by some outside force, filled with color and vibrancy and Power.

The line before her wavered and opened into the form of a great Eye.

She did not move, scarcely dared to breathe. The Eye did not blink. Something plastic slipped from her grasp. It was foolish of her, to dare invoke the presence of One so great.

“Why do you tremble, child?” The Eye spoke in a voice like time itself.

“Because I’m scared,” she answered. She did not know what would happen if she lied, only that there was no point.

The shadows grinned eerily with teeth like fragments of a single note.

“Completely understandable.” A murder of crows watched the girl with Eyes of their own. “You’d be lying if you said you weren’t.”

“Who...what are you?”

“Your parents didn’t tell you?” A small burp sounded at her feet, and she jumped aside, staring at the ground where she’d dropped the marker. 

“They told me...that the eyes were kind, and would help me when I was in trouble.” A crow cawed encouragingly. “To be kind to the birds. To tell the truth and to lie, but know the consequences of each. To give my secrets to the sea. To never...never let beauty be constrained by ignorance.” All these things had been repeated to her, no matter how nonsensical they seemed, under the pretense that she’d understand one day. And maybe...maybe that day was coming soon. The birds had shown her kindness in return, after all. “But what does it all mean?”

“It means that your parents taught you well, child.” The shadows smiled their approval, and the Eye pulsed softly with both light and shadow. “To answer your question, I am the One that is Many. I am the unknown and unknowable, the all knowing and all seeing. I have gone by many names...but you may call me Mother. Or perhaps Grandmother would be more appropriate, given your history.”

“Okay…”

“Come. We have much to discuss.” As abruptly as it had opened, the Eye before her was rent in two and became the halves of a doorway, swinging open to greet her. And before the whispers in her head could overcome those at her back, she entered the darkness.


End file.
